The Dark Tournament Recursion - Post Mortem

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Blackened
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The Dark Tournament Recursion - Post Mortem

Post by Blackened »

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Hello everyone. I hope you enjoyed the tournament as much as I did. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well most of the maps played/turned out as well as the enthusiasm showed during the matches. I hope that while there was still a competitive aspect of this tournament you all enjoyed the silliness and whimsical attributes this type of tournament creates.

I'll come back later and add all the casts and replays but for now here's the various vods:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/474957305 -- .1/Kazu's coverage of matches.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/474957589 -- Netnazgul/Blackened's coverage pt1
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/475071197 -- Netnazgul/Blackened's coverage pt2
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/475688880 -- Medal matches and for fun minigame games at the end.

The complete collection of Dark Maps

The dark Maps with the light turned on

The Rulebook

Fixtures: (left as a link to avoid spoilers)
https://i.imgur.com/96QkdnR.png

The actual post mortem:
Well, not everything went exactly to plan. There were a few game crashes, some maps were minorly bugged(england MCVs) and the one naval map had bugged bridges. Additionally there was a lot of standby time while matches finished so the next map could start. People watching the stream also caught glimpses of the maps before their own matches started. These can be taken care of in the future in a couple of ways and are mostly my fault as the host. RAGL I had a week or so to fix any problems and here I needed to instantaneously while also helping cast games, record results, and a slew of other things. ^^ Regardless, I would say this tournament was a big success. I enjoyed the games and it was a nice break for the grind something like RAGL can be. Any feedback on the tournament is very much appreciated!

The maps:
Dark 1:
This map is the map that inspired the second coming of this tournament. I thought how fun would it be to try and figure out who was a civilian and who was a spy disguised as a civilian. Dogs and snipers add an additional challenge. Codename: SpyGames
Dark 2:
This map was a continuation of the first idea. What if it was a race to find the some vehicles and then take on the enemy. Codename: MechMaze
Dark 3:
A pure spectacle of micro with some minor additions of support crates. Codename: MicroBattle
Dark 4:
This came about from the classic map OreLord. While orelord was more or less imbalanced because of the ref situation and ore, this map is all about the oils which were supercharged. Codename: OilLord
Dark 5:
This map was part of NoobMapMaker's original tournament. It got brought back for the memes. This time with speed set to fastest to help encourage a quicker game. Codename: DarkGreatDivide
Dark 6:
I wanted to create a singleplayer mission and fuse it into a multiplayer match. An after thought I had was to color the creeps so people had a better understanding that they were hostile, but it was pretty funny watching Sigil/Jur get their Rangers zapped. I think this concept is actually kind of interesting. I'll try to further explore it in different maps. Codename: DarkMission
Dark 7:
The first of more "standard" maps this one was heavily inspired by Agenda. While it has 1 more mine than agenda, there are 2 extra singular mines where Agenda doesn't have. Additionally there is a small strip of water for some allied naval harassment. Codename:DarkAgenda
Dark 8:
Standard map minorly inspired by my map Boneyard Codename: Spaghetti Monster
Dark 9:
Partially inspired by sandriser. Sandriser had 5 mines nestled into significant ore patches which caused the middle to be very do or die and very hard to wrestle away. I hoped this map having more ore on the top and mines on the bottom could help stop that problem. Codename: Cheesegrater
Dark 10
Taking the darkness to the fullest, This map pitted players starting in no mans land. Every direction provided a decent foundation. Interestingly, every match I saw devolved into people just fighting in the middle despite the richer outer ring. Codename: Ins and Outs
Dark 11:
Singles with some added ore mines. 6 per side and 11 in the center. More of meme than anything. Codename: DarkSingles
Dark 12:
The obligatory naval map. I actually like how this one turned out minus the bridge bug. Codename: Isle 12
Dark 13:
Inspired by an old failed map of mine. Definitely an improvement and one of my favorite maps. Codename: Mountain Ridge Redux
Dark 14:
Heavily inspired by Nuclear winter, this one combined some thought experiments from Dark 9 as well as its own experiments sought to change up the way Nuclear winter always devolved into. Unfortunately this map was not played during the tournament. Codename: Stresspoints.
Dark 15:
A spiritual successor to Racetracks, this map makes every ore field a trip mine cap. Also bigboy-ified Codename:Racetracks II
Dark 16:
An old unreleased map of mine dating way back to 2016. This one took a large amount of work tweaking and fine tuning bits of shore. Codename: Lakebed.
Dark 17:
Playing around with tight starting positions while experimenting with the value of oil derricks. You could go around and secure the double ore mine but if you opponent pushes middle first you'll eventually lose out. Alternatively you could push middle first and then into the double ore mine killing your opponents oil. Just how much is that oil worth it for you? Codename: Cantankerous
Dark 18:
Further experimenting with boxed in starting positions, this map is smaller and oil is very much needed but not the easiest to protect. Minorly inspired by Desert Rats. Codename: Brittle
Dark 19:
What would happen if you essentially started with a Chronosphere? Expanding now becomes limitless. Perhaps better played with shroud off. This map was still fun for a 1 off that it was. Codename: ChronoStorm
Dark 20:
Experimenting with some asymetrical battle and combining multiple spawn points. Codename: Synthesis
Dark 21:
What if you had a small extension of your base? This map answers that question. The heart of your main base doesn't contain an ore mine however the CC's do. Of course that makes them very valuable targets but also easily covered from the safety of your own base(unless you're FiveAces :lol: ). I think this map could use some further testing. Codename: Command and Control
Dark 22:
A map submitted by NMM. This map was not played during the tournament. This map is extremely low eco which I think would either result in super long games or quick games.
Dark 23:
Big boy desert sidestep with water circling the edges and only 1 ore mine at the start. This map is also quite old and Netnazgul some a preview of it awhile ago. There are numerous though experiments on this map. Codename: Dar-es-balat
Dark 24:
Another NMM submitted map that was also not played. I really wish it had been though as it is a similar style map to one in the first. Frustrating to play on but fun to watch as a viewer.
Dark 25:
A low eco map with 4 starting mines. Do you drop a ref on each mine or do you split 2 refs between the 4 and sacrifice some eco to save build order timings? Codename: PatchesRevisited
Dark 26:
This map was minorly inspired by River Pass by Punsho. I liked the though experiment of choosing where to expand. Do you go N/S over the slower shallows or do you go E/W to better protect your main base? I think this map also deserves more testing to see how viable it is. Codename: WindigeGasse
Dark 27-38:
These maps were unfinished by the time I stopped making maps for the tournament OR I just couldn't get the coding done correctly. Some of the concepts included an RA version of the boardgame Battleship, Bomberman, Another Micro test map, and if any of you ever played custom maps from SC BW there were ones called zergling bounds in which you had to micro a zergling through a series of obstacles. I had something similar but it didn't live up to my expectations. I also tried to have a sequale to the monster level that was the finale for the last tournament but again I couldn't get the LUA (LUA NOT EVEN ONCE) to a level I found acceptable. The rest of the maps were more or less standard 1v1 maps.

Thanks again for all the participants, and those who donated to the prize pool. Thanks for those that watched the streams I hope you enjoyed it!
Last edited by Blackened on Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:47 am, edited 2 times in total.

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netnazgul
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Re: The Dark Tournament Recursion - Post Mortem

Post by netnazgul »

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/475688880 Proper Finals link (permanent highlight)

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Re: The Dark Tournament Recursion - Post Mortem

Post by netnazgul »

...forgot to mention that credits for cutscene videos go to Shpooky (Shpuuch) :P

eskimo
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Re: The Dark Tournament Recursion - Post Mortem

Post by eskimo »

Awesome event, wish i could of made it. Looks like you did a stellar job too. I couldn't get the live vibe when rewatching, so can't comment on any in-game player reactions, which i think is the most entertaining part of a dark tourny for me. Would of liked to see more of the mini games played, or perhaps some more upset style maps, but that's just me and i know others would disagree there. But overall top job, and look forward to another hopefully.

Unfortunately the video from .1 and Kazu is no longer available.

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Punsho
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Re: The Dark Tournament Recursion - Post Mortem

Post by Punsho »

netnazgul wrote:
Mon Sep 02, 2019 10:21 am
...forgot to mention that credits for cutscene videos go to Shpooky (Shpuuch) :P
Those are two completely different people

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Re: The Dark Tournament Recursion - Post Mortem

Post by netnazgul »

Yes, I learned that afterwards. Nevertheless...

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